‘Loose Ends’ – for the 50th Anniversary Special and Beyond

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This blog was orginally posted by Shazzbot. Now that she has left the site she has asked for it to be removed.

Comments are still below.


50 comments

  1. Re What was in the Doctor’s ‘room’. I’ve always thought it was River Song! The reason for this is, on the ‘Coming Soon’ trailer at the end of ‘A Christmas Carol’, there’s a brief shot of River in a darkened room (time index 1:01:20, just after a shot of the Doctor ‘getting mail’ from TDW).

    It’s obviously from a deleted scene but the question is which episode was it deleted from? I can’t see it being from any episode other than TGC because it appears that River’s not wearing many clothes 😯 and to my knowledge, River doesn’t seem to be ‘baring flesh’ in the episodes that she is in.

  2. @Shazzbot

    McGann’s human mother – Dismissed (because it’s sh*t) when Tennant Dr 2 describes being half Human as ‘disgusting’

    Mystery Woman – Explained in ‘The Writer’s Tale’ book by RTD (2nd version) – But who was the other person who voted ‘Gallifrey should fall’?

    Duckless Duck Pond – Explained in the Big Bang thread post #16334

    Clara’s Dad – Where is he? – At home, complaining about the Government(!)

     

  3. @FatManInABox – I always avoid the ‘coming soon’ business, in any TV show.  (I count that all as ‘Spoilers, Sweetie’.)  So I frankly have no idea what you’re talking about, but it sounds like a wonderful theory.  I’d just ask … why does the Doctor then say ‘Of course …’ if he’s just seen River, considering what everyone else’s ‘room’ in The God Complex meant to them.  Do you think the Doctor is that afraid of River?  (I’m not doubting you, just interested to hear your take.)

    @wolfweed – ahh, but a book by RTD vs what’s shown to us in episodes.  There have been debates about whether what’s in internet-only ‘webisodes’ or on DVD extras can actually count as canon with respect to the TV show.  I think taking it out to books is stretching slightly – but then that is another conversation entirely:  ‘What counts as canon’.

    And sorry Wolfster – I totally forgot about your post which included SM’s interview in Doctor Who Magazine regarding the duck pond.  For everyone else on this blog, here is what he said:

    Steven Moffat: Oh Lordy. From the start I had this single idea:

    That the ducks, like Amy’s parents, had been sucked through the crack in time. And to round everything off, in the very last shot of the series, we’d see the TARDIS fade away, leaving us with a shot of the duckpond, and some happy little ducks. Then, at the last minute we had to relocate the scene to Amy’s back garden, and it never happened. So! There you go! Nice thought, never happened. Oops!

  4. @shazzbot – I don’t think it’s River herself that The Doctor’s frightened of but a couple of possibilities spring to mind…

    a) Given that he knows how/where/when she dies, it may be that he’s frightened by his growing feelings for her.

    b) He could be worried that The Silence/Kovarian still have some influence over her.

    Another loose end which comes to mind is, who wrote the book about The Weeping Angels (TTOA/FAS) ?

  5. @FatManInABox – The deleted scene you mention seems to be from ‘The Impossible Astronaut’…

    Stormcage Cell (After River receives her postcard…)

    River calmly packs her suitcase, whilst guards outside the cell train rifles on her.

    Prison Governor: ‘During my predecessor’s time you escaped from this prison on no less  than 15 occasions. It’s not going to happen on my watch…What are you doing?’

    (River starts undressing…)

    River: ‘Well I’m not leaving dressed like this.’

    Governor: ‘Shoot her’

    Guard: ‘We can’t shoot a prisoner, sir.’

    Governor: ‘Shoot Dr Song now!’

    River (still undressing): ‘Boys, think it through. What do you really want to do?’

    Guard: Yeah, it’s Dr Song, she escaped again…and she shot the Governor (A stretchered figure is whisked past)

     

    @Shazzbot – A Writer’s Tale is a factual book explaining the production process, so if you accept Duck Pond & naked River explanations, you’ll certainly have to accept who the mystery woman is (notice I didn’t say who…)

     

     

  6. @wolfweed @FatManInABox – OK gentlemen, you’re doing a good job demolishing some of the ‘loose thread’ count.  🙂

    But in the spirit of the 50th, which remaining loose threads do you (and everyone else reading this blog) expect to see wrapped up in the 50th anniversary special?  Do you have any more to add to the list?  Which ones do you think should just be left on the floor, tagged ‘For the Discerning Bonkers Theorist Only’ ?

    P.S. @wolfweed – you always were the soul of discretion with respect to spoilers, and I’m mighty grateful that you’re playing to type in this thread. 😉

  7. Oops – That last bit should say:

    ‘…What do you really want to do?’

    Cut to corridor

    Guard (on telephone): ‘Yeah, it’s Dr Song, she escaped again…and she shot the Governor.’ (A stretchered figure is whisked past)

  8. OK, I’ll start it off properly:

    What do I think will be addressed in the 50th?

    •  12 regenerations.  (MUST be.)
    • Clara:  ‘So that’s who … ‘
    • The Doctor’s cot – why/how did he bring it from Gallifrey?  And who else slept in that cot?
    • The hatstand – why did it disappear in Hide?

    What do I think should be left for boundless bonkers theorising forevermore?

    • Lorna Bucket – why doesn’t the Doctor remember her?
    • The Doctor’s Name – when did River Song learn it?
    • Who / what made the landing gear marks on Amelia’s back lawn?
    • Who’s controlling the exploding Tardis with River Song in it?
    • Picture of Amy with baby Melody – when was that taken?

    What do I wish would be in the 50th but I suspect in my heart-of-hearts will never be?

    • The ‘ganger Doctor’
    • Jenny [The Doctor’s Daughter]
    • Clara’s differently-shaped leaves
    • The Exploding Tardis (why does the Tennant –> Smith regeneration seemingly cause the Tardis to explode?)
    • River’s sonic screwdriver – which Doctor gave it to her?

     

  9. Hi, nice idea! I will have a go at these two:

    • The time machine – where did it come from, and why does it seem the Silence later have it? (The Lodger, Day of the Moon)
    • Who’s controlling the exploding Tardis with River Song in it? (The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang)

    Because to me it is the same explenation:

    The Silence controlled River (nearly) her whole life. Who says they did not get in when she visited Amys house? You act upon the last thing you hear before you look away. They could have easily manipulated her.
    Same thing with the Doctor. Theoratically they could have gotten a lift from him. How is he supposed to remember? They could have told him to go back where he picked them up before they go out of his sight.

    Too bonkers, is it?

     

    Cheers,

    Timeloop

     

     

  10. Another loose end from TPO and TBB that I’d like answered in TDotD is:

    Who and what made the landing gear marks on Amy’s lawn?

  11. The additional floor in Amy’s house (steps going up inside, no floor seen from outside) – The Eleventh Hour.

    The missing pirate from Curse… (prob a continuity error)

    No mention of why there is a new Tardis Interior (from the Christmas special).

    I’m still going with two or more Tardii crashing / being ‘born’ and expect this to be explained in the 50th.

    The weird picture from The Lodger.

    The Blinovitch Limitation Effect – from BG Day of the Daleks. This is supposed to stop multiple ‘goes’ at changing history but seems to have been forgotten about. I think this will be explained in detail / referenced in the 50th.

    The Unit dating conundrum! (easy one this)

  12. @WhoHar – sorry, got sidetracked from my original reply to you.  @HTPBDET‘s death has hit me rather hard.

    But I’m sure he’d want us to soldier on in our bonkers theorising, so in his memory, here is my response:

    The staircase in Amy’s house was left off my list because I thought it had been addressed … but then I saw this post.

    You’re right, I should have probably had an extra category ‘Continuity Errors’ (re The Curse of the Black Spot and the missing pirate).

    Good catch – new Tardis interiors are usually much more heralded, and this one was sprung upon us with no fanfare.

    I’m categorising the hallway picture in The Lodger as ‘something which should be left unexplained to tantalise us forever’.

    Ahhhh, the Blinovitch Effect – which assumes ‘The Day of the Doctor’ is self-referential to ‘The Day of the Daleks’.  Perhaps … perhaps … perhaps?

    If the ‘Unit dating conundrum’ is so easy – let us all know …

  13. @FatManInABox

    Who and what made the landing gear marks on Amy’s lawn?

    I’m thinking that with the lack of advertised involvement by Karen and Arthur in the 50th, that this detail must go into the category: ‘something which should be left unexplained to tantalise us forever’.

  14. Who and what made the landing gear marks on Amy’s lawn?

    Whoever was researching Amy’s life to create the Pandorica trap.

    The new TARDIS interior is definitely important: it just appeared without any explanation whatsoever, and then the Doctor can’t remember if there’s a hatstand in it. It might, however, be a product of the GI’s interference with the Doctor’s time-stream.

    The Doctor’s birth-name; I think the Tennant Doctor’s shock (and River’s apology) is because they both know its the key to his tomb. And now I’m remembering that the Tomb of Rassilon was a big thing for the 20th Anniversary, and the Tomb of The Doctor was a big thing for the lead-up to the 50th. Neat.

    To me the big puzzle is the Tennant Doctor saying ‘There’s only one time I could.’ Not ‘would’, but ‘could’, as if there’s only one possible time he could tell her his name.

  15. Hi @shazzbot

    Hope you are doing Ok considering the news today.

    Please don’t worry about replying to my ramblings when there are more important matters to consider.

    But…this is a DW forum so….

    The Unit dating conundrum can be explained by Clara falling through the Doc’s timestream and causing some anomalies on her way. This can also be used to explain any other inconsistencies in BG or even AG Who.

  16. Clara’s Dad: I agree he’s still in Blackpool – so he and Clara probably mostly talk on the phone. That said, there’s three odd little things about him. One is that the shot of Clara-as-a-baby is him holding her, and Ellie looking in at them both as if she’s delighted he loves the baby. Two is that, in the funeral scene, it takes him some time to put his arm around Clara. Three is that we see Ellie as Victorian Clara’s mum, but no sign of Dad.

    Now the third could be that they only wanted to pay two actors for the Prequel and Victorian scenes 🙂 But there’s certainly more than a hint that – while Clara and her Dad love each other, and stay in touch – the strong, close relationship was between Clara and Mum. In fact, using the same actress for Mum suggests that not only did Clara break into Claricles, her Mum was somehow always there for her as a child, whenever and wherever she went.

    And considering that Clara did break into thousands of Claricles, that’s a feat worthy of … a Time Lord, perhaps?

  17. @shazzbot and @WhoHar. I had this nagging feeling that we had a discussion like this a while back. And, loh and behold…post #17008 and what follows.

    But, in spite of the explanations at the time, I still think all of those things are yet to be fully explained.

    Some, as @shazzbot says, will not as they are too dependent on returning to Amy and Rory, but, one in particular I really hope is…the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.

    Of course, how any of this relates to the return of the Zygons is a complete mystery!

     

  18. @Shazzbot

    I’m thinking that with the lack of advertised involvement by Karen and Arthur in the 50th, that this detail must go into the category: ‘something which should be left unexplained to tantalise us forever’.

    Not necessarily, Amy and Rory were at Stonehenge at the time so they wouldn’t need to be featured. All it would require is a shot of the spaceship landing outside Amy’s house and the ‘baddie’ rummaging about.

    @BlueSqueakPip

    Whoever was researching Amy’s life to create the Pandorica trap.

    Hehe of course! But who, exactly, was this ‘researcher’? It’s little details like this that my obsessive mind craves 🙂 . One possibility I’d thought of was that it could have been the ‘real version’ of Gideon Vandaleur (TWoRS).

  19. @fatmaninabox

    Who and what made the landing gear marks on Amy’s lawn?

    Oooooooh. Those burn marks on the grass outside. I’ll take you through my thinking on this one, with picture aids.

    River: There’s burn marks on the grass outside. Landing patterns.

    The Doctor: If they’ve been through her house they could have used the psychic residue. Structures can hold memories. That’s why houses have ghosts. They could have taken a snapshot of Amy’s memories.

    As River has said, the three burn marks we can see outside with a curious pattern. Ignore the centre – look at the outline, an irregular odd-sided polyhydron, flat at the “back” ( right), pointed at the “front”.

    Looks – curiously similar to the footprint one of these would make, if you ignored the skirt.

    River: It’s a trap, it has to be. They used Amy to construct a scenario you’d believe. To get close to you.

    A while later, the surprise guests, the Daleks, turn up in the Pandorica. Three of them.

    Dalek: A scenario was devised from the memories of your companion.

    So I’ve always thought 3 Daleky shaped burn marks on the lawn, followed by three Daleks who seem to echo River’s words was pretty indicative of it being the Nestenes, personally. 😀

  20. @PhaseShift – my dyslexia was really having problems with ‘burn marks on the lawn’. It kept coming out as ‘bum marks’, which was then making me think ‘what aliens have bums shaped like that?’ Followed by ‘Daleks? Daleks have bums?’

    Anyway, once I’d eventually sorted it out – yes, Daleks are a good call. My attitude was, on the whole, that there were so many aliens in the alliance the burn marks could be from any spaceship. But I think you’re right that the marks are probably hover-Daleks.

    It’ll be interesting if it turns out that it was John Hurt in the Doctor’s room

    I reckon we will get an answer to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, simply because it was highlighted in The Big Bang and then equally highlighted in its absence in A Christmas Carol. So it’s something to do with the rebooted universe – and it’s important enough to mention.

    Furthermore, the Doctor doesn’t seem aware that it’s missing – which rather screams ‘important’.

  21. @Bluesqueakpip – I really don’t want to look so needy that I require being self-referential,  (but yes, probably that needy 🙂  and will be that self-referential 😀 ).

    http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/forums/topic/s32-6-2-day-of-the-moon/#post-19490

    John Hurt … The Atraxi … The Silence … “something in the corner of your eye … or a creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall …”

    Perhaps we’re going back to Amelia’s back garden in the 50th, after all ….

  22. Lorna Bucket -for me- is relatively simple. It hasn’t happened yet. For her, ten years ago. For the Doctor – it happens further on in his personal timestream

  23. @Shazzbot

    Good list, which I’ll come back to with more time.

    But I have a special request meantime. And I invoke our recently departed friend as backup as I’m sure he would support me in this! PLEASE remove the first one (McGann being half human). This is not a loose end. It’s an ERROR 😉 Although if you want it explained – his mum was chameleon arched at the time and only appared human. There, it’s sorted, so can you please lose it now.

    Thank you.

    🙂

    @Phaseshift – nice working through of the skid marks

  24. @PhaseShift

    I like the Dalek theory. I like it a lot 🙂

    I’d assumed they were marks left by the landing gear of a vessel of some kind, maybe even the Silence’s TARDIS-like ship thingy from TDoTM.

    I’m kicking myself that I didn’t spot it sooner as I’ve been working on CGI models of various Daleks for months including the much maligned New Paradigm Daleks.

  25. On the contents of the room in God Complex, with it being Toby Whitehouse who loves a bit of ambiguity in storytelling and unanswered questions (see the end of Being Human) I think it was there just to provoke debate – what do you think his deepest fear is?

    Remembering the thread lots of people saw different things – Tardis, River, Amy but my own was always himself. If Doctor Hurt is the personification of what he thinks he may be capable of, then perhaps it was, but I don’t think it’ll be referenced directly in the anniversary.

  26. @PhaseShift – I’m totally with you on the God Complex. It should remain as one of those things which should be ‘left unexplained to tantalise us forever’.

  27. As for

    The time machine – where did it come from, and why does it seem the Silence later have it? (The Lodger, Day of the Moon)

    – On my own personal theory that the Silence are actually good guys (because they know GI will cause the Doctors timestream to collapse therefore wiping out most of existance) – Trenzalore can only be accessed by a Time Machine due to the Tardis dimensionally locking itself out of normal time and space as it dies.

    Of course, we don’t know that and we don’t know how GI got there!

  28. @CraigNixon

    I admire your attempt to rehabilitate the Silence, but sorry, I’m not convinced!

    I think the rumours which galvanised the Silence, Kovarian and the Doctor’s other enemies came from the GI jumping into the Doctor’s timestream. That was the damage he promised to cause. The GI works by influencing people, by whispers and rumours.  we know that our Doctor isn’t a “blood soaked monster”, so where else could that have come from?  He could also have started the rumour about the Question Which Should Never Be Asked.

    But we also know from the NotD that the question WAS asked (by the GI) at Trenzalore, and we also know that the universe started to end,, Vastra & co watched the stars going out. Until Clara retconned it by jumping into the timestream as well.

    So sorry, I don’t think this is a loose end. I think it’s quite nicely tied up.  Not so sure about the Silence time machine though. And I like the suggestions above that maybe the Doctor piloted it from Craig’s house… then forgot!  (Tho obv there is then the problem of how he got back to the TARDIS)

     

  29. You’ve missed a pretty major loose end off your list, Who exactly is the “Hurt” Doctor!

    Also, isn’t the screeching of tyres in TBoSJ a loose end?

    Clara’s mother is definitely an interesting character. I can only imagine she must be a time traveller always going to where she is needed to watch over Clara. The only issue with that is, what does it mean for her husband (Clara’s Dad)?

    In regards to the red setting on the sonic screwdriver seen in Cold War, I believe it was confirmed that was caused by the reflection of the submarines red lights, not the sonic itself.

    The whole cracks in time/exploding TARDIS plot gets my head in such a muddle I’ve dismissed that whole plot as done and dusted and I’m not longing for them to bring it up again!

    Personally, I’ve got such a bad memory that I forget all about loose ends! It then comes as a nice surprise when something twigs while watching an episode 😛

  30. @CraigNixon – I don’t think you can call the Silence good guys. Well intentioned extremists is about as far as you can go – and even that’s doubtful.

    Good guys don’t murder for fun; which was one of the first things we saw the Silence do. Now, given that Joy’s death had absolutely zero impact on the plot, the only possible reason it could be in there was to show straight away that the Silence are Not Nice.

    Then you’ve got kidnapping a pregnant woman, turning an innocent baby into a psychopath – even if their motivation is good, their means are very questionable.

  31. Well yeah probably. Crazy to boot.

    I just think it will very significant that the Silence were not seen at Trenzalore at all.  But @ScaryB idea that the GI whispers caused all that is very good!

  32. @ScaryB

    I like your explanation (I’m afraid the link between series 6 and 7 story arcs remain an onging mystery for me), but it does mean that dear Moffat thought up the idea of GI (or rather his underlying idea which is now called the GI) entering the Doctor’s time stream before season 6 was written in order to do the damage to the Doctor’s image you refer to.

    I have no problem with this season 7b idea being thought up back in the planning for season 6 (in fact I think its likely to be broadly correct), but I think it leaves open the possibility that the arc ideas in series 6 and 7b will reappear in some form for resolution in the 50th.

    Nick

  33. @wolfweed – have added the Hatstand Conundrum to the list.  🙂

    P.S. I ordered that self-same hatstand off the internet and was totally flummoxed by it arriving flat-pack. My lovely London house had an enormous hallway, perfect for said hatstand, but I was too embarrassed to admit to anyone that I couldn’t figure out how to put it together. For 4 years it sat in half-assembled pieces in the box.

    Then, I moved to Yorkshire; and my theatre group did Calendar Girls earlier this year. The ‘village hall’ set needed a hatstand and with the help of the rest of the Set Crew, the hatstand was finally assembled in all its glory.

  34. I always took the ‘human, on my mother’s side’  to be the Doctor being humourous, by referencing Spock.  Mainly because I didn’t want to contemplate that they were being serious.  Funnily enough, from the moment AG Who started, I wanted McGann to be acknowledged as a legitimate former incarnation, while simultaneously wanting to deny pretty much anything that happened in the episode.

     

    @WhoHar – Blinovitch Limitation Effect – I agree, I think in one way or another, it’s going to be dealt with in the special.  I was wondering whether the universe being remade with the help of Amy’s memories is important – as her own experiences wouldn’t have given her any indication of the limitation (she was able to touch her younger self I think?)   It would be ironic if the Doctor was crossing his own timeline, with care not to interfere with his own timeline, in order to encourage Amy to remember but in the process gave her firm belief that you could interact with your own past.  The lack of Pond in the anniversary makes me doubt it though.

    @CraigNixon – I don’t think your far wrong with the Silence, although rather than actually being good, they’re just utterly self serving.  Kill anything that’s in their way.  The Doctor answering the question is bad for them, so get rid.  I think the interesting thing is whether the danger posed by the question being answered was the stars going out etc, or whether the danger is actually the events now put in place by the Doctor and Clara being in his own timestream (possibly the HurtDoctor getting loose.)

    @Shazzbot, @Wolfweed – re. the woman who appears to Wilf.  I haven’t read The Writers Tale yet, but without inviting spoilers, does it just cover who she is, rather than how the bloody hell she got out of the timelock when everyone else was sat round pondering how to do it?

    Another for the list, which I suspect may actually get covered next year, what happened when Clara went missing as a child?  It seems to be important for her and her mums backstory.

    Also, what was with the weird underwater faint in Cold War?

  35. @blenkinsopthebrave – sorry, you asked a question last week and I’m just answering it now.  Apologies for the delay.

    If you look at the ‘Help’ option in the main menu, you’ll find a section ‘Creating an active link to on- or off-site content.’  There, it says:

    To link to another Doctor Who Forum post, right-click on the post’s number (in the top-right of the post’s header line) and select ‘Copy Link Location’. Go back to the comment box, highlight the text you wish to contain the link, and click the ‘Insert/edit link’ or ‘link’ options as above.

    NOTE: You are not required to select text to contain the link; you can simply paste the URL in your comment if you wish.

  36. what happened when Clara went missing as a child? It seems to be important for her and her mums backstory.

    @OsakaHatter – I don’t think the actual event is important (it’s really easy for a kid to get lost on a crowded beach). The important thing is her mum telling her that she will always find her. Even if she goes to the moon.

    And then later on, we see Victorian Clara’s mother. And as other people pointed out to me, it looks very like Victorian Clara’s mother is – Clara’s Mum. Whoever Clara is and wherever or whenever she goes, it seems her Mum will always find her.

    Now, this may be poetic whimsey, but after all – they didn’t have to show Victorian Clara’s mother. And Moffat’s stuck another couple of odd things into the script. I do keep thinking, whenever I watch that ‘Clara growing up’ sequence, that we see no mum-with-bump scene or ‘mum with baby in hospital’ scenes. Modern Who hasn’t been shy about baby bumps and women in labour; yet baby Clara just appears. As if by magic. 🙂 Ellie also has a slightly odd look on her face when Dave’s doing his leaf speech – as if the actress was told that the leaf going into Dave’s face wasn’t an accident.

    Then there’s the ‘Oh my stars’ expression, and the point that Ellie stops dead on first seeing the Doctor.

    Against all that is that Clara says ‘I was blown into this world on a leaf’ – which implies that Clara, at least, thinks she’s the natural child of her Mum and Dad.

     

  37. @Bluesqueakpip – yes, I agree it’s probably not that event that’s important (although I did have the makings of a theory that she witnessed the Doctor regenerating into 9, hence his northern accent), and even the statement, “I’ll always find you” is something a parent could well say to comfort a distressed child.  But.. as you detail, the mum does appear to find her, any version of her, across time.

    The only explanation I can think of for Ellie always being the consistent mother is that the Claricles didn’t actually grow up in each time zone they appeared in.  They arrived there fully formed, but Clara’s childhood memories somehow adapted to give each Claricle a sense of place.  The imagined life pattern followed a similar path to Clara Prime, because it was a localized version of the originals memories.

    I think there’s more back story to come about Clara and her family, although I doubt it’s relevant to the anniversary special.  And I think you’re right to highlight Ellie’s various odd looks and expressions – they still make me think that Ellie may be a chameleon arched Susan.

    Did those missing years in Clara’s book get explained?  If not, that’s another for @Shazzbot ‘s list.

  38. @Bluesqueakpip

    Against all that is that Clara says ‘I was blown into this world on a leaf’ – which implies that Clara, at least, thinks she’s the natural child of her Mum and Dad

    I presume she subscribes to the Facts of Life Manual that proposes gooseberry bushes and storks…?! 😉

    @OsakaHatter love your theory that Eccleston’s Northern accent came from a timeywimey contact with Clara!  (Think they’re from different Norths tho). And that the Claricles turn up in a period, fully-formed and with different back-stories intact. And sometimes with her mother. Maybe the Promise the mother made to always find her keeps her in touch.  Unless of course Clara’s her own mum!

    And you’re right about the missing years in her book. (Except for Bluesqueakpip’s meta-refs for the missing years, they’ve not been explained. Or maybe they’re just meta-refs))

  39. Ellie may be a chameleon arched Susan.

    @OsakaHatter – definitely a theory still up for grabs. To be honest, that ‘101 Places To See’ book looks strangely old fashioned for something supposedly given to the little Ellie Ravenwood in the 1970’s. Books for kids in the 1970’s tended to use the new tech and either have pictures on the front or photos.

    101 Places to See looks like something from the 1950’s at the latest. It’s like something Ellie’s own mother would have given her. Or, alternatively, something she might have picked up in a scrapyard, circa 1963.  😉

  40. I presume she subscribes to the Facts of Life Manual that proposes gooseberry bushes and storks…?!

    @ScaryB  – metaphor, my dear, metaphor. Her parents would never have met without the leaf, which meant the little gametes that met to form Clara would also never have met without the leaf.

    I meant that her saying that suggests she hasn’t been told she was adopted. 😈

  41. Coming very late to this, and even later to this loose end (which might be more sort of a vague continuity error in any case) BUT:

    The Gelf – in Unquiet Dead at least one of the Gelf seems to have escaped into the gas lighting at the theatre. We know that the Gelf had survived in the pipes at the Undertaker’s for a very long time (stories of the house being haunted go a long way back), so is it possible that Gelf are still hanging around Cardiff trying to break through and perform unspeakable acts? Could be a nice jumping off point for a story.

  42. Re Lorna Bucker – prematurely crossed off for the wrong reason – The Doctor didn’t remember her because she wasn’t important enough – that was made very clear in-text. He remembered the Gamma Forest because at some critical time River was there ands got her name translated. But Lorna was just some girl, inspired by the great warrior but not even noticed by him. The he lied top bring comfort. That was the point of her story. It practically screams “HELLO! I’M A METAPHOR FOR THE NAMELESS CASUALTIES”.

    Clara: ‘So that’s who …’ (Journey to the Centre of the Tardis) – Passing thought: I think it is more likely that she saw a picture rather than a name. Of 11 with an 8 year old Clara?

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